23: RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (OSCAR SERIES)

Eye on which Oscar?

Performance by an actress in a leading role - Anne Hathaway

Where?

Chelsea, 8.40pm (second in a double bill).

Comments?

On first glance, Rachel Getting Married looks like a non taxing rom-com that would not be to my liking at all. Anne Hathaway is the lead actress; there's the word "married" in the title. I was not hoping for much, hoping for something that I would at least be able to sit through.

Digging a little deeper, I saw that the movie was directed by Jonathan Demme, the man who gave the cinematic world The Silence of the Lambs. Okay, this made me feel a little better. Sure, it still looks like a marriage rom-com but maybe there's something a little darker underneath. I was right.

Rachel Getting Married is an intense, fly on the wall study of a dysfunctional family attempting to come together for a momentous occasion, but instead bringing all festering anxieties and arguments to the surface. It is a captivating account of how far families can be torn apart and how they can, if not in totality, be brought back together.

Kym returns home from rehab for her sister's wedding. Rachel is marrying a musician and is deeply in love. Kym's arrival is not exactly welcomed by Rachel, a little too late in an attempt at reconciliation, but their father, overbearing and protective of Kym, does everything he can to keep the wedding on track. Sounds like something Steve Martin and Martin Short might be involved in, but rest assured, this is as far from The Wedding Planner as anything could be. Nothing is held back or sweetened; this is raw, visceral stuff.

Deep down below the surface, Kym is fighting her family, who, whether spoken or not, hold her accountable for a tragic accident that occurred when she was sixteen years old. The horrible incident in the past permeates the movie from beginning to end, just as it would do so for the family members for the rest of their lives, and it is depicted in many poignant scenes. One such scene involves a dishwasher stacking contest in the kitchen which comes to an abrupt end by the appearance of a solitary plate, accidentally retrieved from the cupboard at the height of the contest. Memories come flooding in, filling the silence.

Rachel Getting Married drains the emotions from each end of the spectrum, sadness and regret, to joy and love, but you will leave the cinema feeling fuller in spirit. An important movie, deftly handled and superbly acted, this may not be a rom-com or a date movie, but it is an experience that touches the heart and soul, a "marriage" movie that has to work hard for happiness.

Oscar worthy?

I can be comfortable in saying that Rachel Getting Married should have been up for more Oscars. If The Academy turned their eye to more independent, challenging pieces, Rachel would maybe up there for Best Movie, but definitely for Best Director. It doesn't even get a nod for Best Screenplay, which was written by Sydney Lumet's daughter, Jenny, and is both raw and warm in its delivery. Lines like "he lives in our hearts and pays a little rent everyday" and "I wish that you both will live to 100 years old and that I will live to one day less, so I will always know that people like you never die" may sound corny in this context, but upon hearing them on screen, they felt like the most original lines I've heard in some time.

Although Rachel Gets Married is not an Oscar film, I believe it is better off for it. A small indie type film and release guarantees it remains at a size befitting the story and production.

As for Anne Hathaway, she is excellent as Kym, the family's embarrassment who, no matter how hard she tries to deny it, wants acceptance. However, the actress is not alone. Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel, Bill Irwin as the father, Debra Winger as the estranged mother, and everybody else in the cast down to the wedding singers (which of there are plenty) are brilliant and, this is a complement to the cast as a whole, they are so well rounded and natural in their performance that they don't even appear to be acting. There should definitely have been a few Best Supporting nominations thrown into the mix here, especially for DeWitt (who, after seeing this movie, I've added to my Celebrity Sex-e-Que © list) and Irwin; both fine performances. As for Hathaway, I think she is great in this movie, but her co-actors are just as good, thus diluting her chances, in my eyes, for the Oscar.

Rating?

8.5 out of 10

Post Movie Quote:

"I didn't expect to gain anything from this movie, but I'm pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect to lose anything either, but where's my bloody umbrella!"